Carolyn M. Stark Named Sonoma County BEST Executive Director

The Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce announced today the appointment of Carolyn Stark as Executive Director of the Building Economic Success Together (BEST) program, a countywide economic development organization. The BEST program was formed last year under the umbrella of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce as an initiative to foster job expansion in Sonoma County.

The BEST strategic plan calls for the creation of over 2,500 direct jobs and 4,100 total jobs over a 5-year period of time. BEST projects big gains from the plan for the region: $155 million in consumer expenditures, $37 million in state and local tax revenues, $87 million in bank deposits, $268 million in payroll earnings and $182 million in disposable income.

“BEST has brought together leaders from both private and public sectors in an effort to stimulate job growth in Sonoma County, and we are excited to be moving into the next phase with Carolyn’s experience and leadership,” says Carl Campbell, BEST Board Member and Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce’s 2011 Chairman of the Board.

Ms. Stark’s career has been focused on promoting economic growth and community vitality. Most recently she was in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area) where she was one of the community leaders creating the region’s long-term economic strategy to diversify the valley economy, develop workforce excellence through improved education, promote regionalism, and preserve the ‘quality of place’ in the Coachella Valley. That plan laid out a blueprint to bring over 8,000 new jobs to the region and is currently in its second year of implementation.

In Austin, Carolyn was CEO of the Austin Technology Council, a non-profit organization of business, community and government leaders that worked together to promote the growth and expansion of the technology business sector in Texas. Austin’s regional initiative led to over 150,000 new jobs since 2004.

“We had a national search for the BEST executive director, and Carolyn’s experience in Silicon Valley, Austin, and recently in the Palm Springs area—being a catalyst for getting community leaders to create productive and prosperous economic conditions—was exceptional,” said Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce President/CEO, Jonathan Coe.

The executive search was spearheaded by Leap Solutions Group LLC, a Sonoma County Business Management Consulting firm.

“One of the most important things within a community is to have good jobs,” says Ms. Stark. “BEST represents a terrific collaborative effort to create these for Sonoma County, and I am excited to be asked to take this initiative to the next level.”

Ms. Stark will start on the job December 1, 2011.